Lots more scrutiny on appraisals - a key component continues to be ignored

There is much hand-wringing by lenders about appraisals.  There should be!  Unfortunately, underwriters continue to stare intently at the same inadequate thing, only they stare harder.  The obsession with comparable sales continues.  Check out this worry!
www.smartmoney.com/personal-finance/real-estate/lowball-home-appraisal-can-spoil-deal/

I would have thought (hoped), that by now "comps" would have been relegated to a secondary consideration and that the intrinsic value of a property would finally be getting its long overdue attention.  I continue to be wrong.  Not a peep about the cost to rent vs. own (the best evaluation of intrinsic value), in any of my considerable reading and listening.

YOUR buyers, however, can certainly benefit from you providing some basic comparisons of the cost of rent vs. ownership in the geographic areas and market segments where they are searching.  Provide this data and some analysis of it and your clients will see that you are looking out for them in a unique way that will set you apart and above other agents they might have considered.

-Jeff